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Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Europe as a Paradise of Krugman's Very Serious People

Europe is still romanticized in the minds of the Left, but this is out of date. True they still have a much bigger welfare state in Western Europe than in the US but this is sort of a relic of a social democratic past rather than anything to do with politics in today's Europe.

There was a lot of talk on today's Morning Joe about how much Trump's comments have been criticized internationally and specifically in France.

It is an unfortunate reality that for ISIS and friends Trump will be made the face of Americans. As Tom Brown says, the Right in different countries are in secret conspiracy. The more ISIS inspired violence the more this helps the Right in the Western countries; the more the Right rises in the Western countries the more this buffers ISIS and friends.

But there is some irony in France criticizing Trump's comments seeing how well France's own Trump-Marine La Pen and her National Front party did in France over the weekend.

Krugman points out that the dominance of the Very Serious People in Europe and the rise of Far Right and Far Left parties is related.

"Kevin O’Rourke weighs in on the big showing of Marine Le Pen and friends in the French elections; like me, he argues that it has a lot to do with Europe’s economic failures."

"Let me add, however, that it’s not just a matter of times being bad. It’s also important to realize the way in which traditional sources of authority have devalued themselves through repeated policy failure. Europe, much more than the U.S., is run by Very Serious People, who tell the public that it must accept Schengen, austerity, and regulatory harmonization (the eurosausage!), and that these are the right things to do because those who understand how the world works say so. But if things keep going badly, this authority based on the presumption of expertise erodes, and politicians who offer more visceral answers gain support."

There's a lot of truth in this. The euro experiment has proven to be a total disaster. The more the euro talking heads cling to their talking points despite reality, the more the more visceral talk of Left and Right will resonate.

For this reason, as I've argued often, the US actually is the liberal hope today much ore than Europe which is fairly hopeless politically speaking.

9 comments:

I'm now reading about how Trump may loose some money overseas for his comments (through losing partnerships) and that the UK has a petition up to ban him from the country. Trump could use both to his advantage. Imagine Trump is banned from the rest of the world: he could brag about that and say "Fuck the world! USA! USA! USA!..." ... I bet he'd get the room on it's feed. Lol... :^D

BTW, would you now want to stay in a Trump hotel down in Dubai or something?

Let's try to predict how Trump will respond if they start debating whether or not to ban him in the UK parliament.

I don't think he'll back down. He's supposed to be a "strong man" and a "strong man" to an adolescent boy who's dad taught him to throw rocks at the different kids (i.e. Trump supporters), NEVER backs down! Lol.

What will he do though? Maybe one of:

1. Brush it off: "Call me Hitler, ban me from your country... I don't care. I really don't care! I'm talking about what's unavoidable. It's not PC so you don't like it. You don't like me, well too fucking bad!"

2. Threaten the UK somehow: It's too early to threaten nuclear war (that comes another month or two down the road): simply threaten a trade war. Insult England: "They're a bunch of pussies. What happened to your Empire? People, we're supposed to take advice from a pip squeak country that lost it's empire? What do they make in England anyway? Tea? Nope. They don't even make their own tea! And I'm supposed to be scolded by them?"

Haha... this should be fun. Hopefully my fun won't coincide with some American's staying in Trump hotels somewhere in the world being killed by terrorists though.

Hey, you know how I always say that Trump likes to shatter taboos. Of course that's part of his appeal: he "frees" his supporters from these taboos... perhaps ones they weren't even aware they were being constrained by. He makes it fun and exciting and liberating... and he asks NOTHING of them in return, except their attention and support. (One of the arguments against him being a fascist BTW is that he's not asking for sacrifices from his mob in return). He's presenting himself as America's sky-daddy: have faith in him, and he'll "liberate" you in your submission to him. No need to think anymore! Sky-daddy Trump will fix it. (not to be confused with Jeb! will fix it!).

So I can imagine ALL kinds of taboos yet to be shattered. Trump has LOTS of room left to "grow"... he can mentally take his supporters on a magic carpet ride of taboo shattering liberation.

For example: he should start openly threatening nuclear war. Now he isn't the first to have gone there: Ted Cruz has already talked about making "the sand glow" ... so that fits your pattern right? He's not the first to talk about banning Muslims, but he's widened the scope. He's done it with more bombast. So why not nuclear war? He can openly threaten Iran, Russia, China... shoot, if the UK bans him, he can threaten them! To be read in Trump's voice: "You want to ban me England? Fuck You! I'll nuke your limey asses!" -- Hahaha

That'll probably make his chances in the general plummet from where they are now (45%?) all the way down to 40% or so. ;^D

... of course Ann Coulter would have to outdo him: If Trump threatens to nuke a half dozen countries, Ann would tweet "Why not a dozen?" Maybe that can be the title of Ann's next book: "Why America should nuke the scum that live in the rest of the world."

O/T: with Trump and La Pen ascendant, and the UK on the brink of debating banning Trump from their shores, it would be funny if France becomes the new "good guy" in Europe to the right. "French fries" are fine, but "English muffins" will be replaced with "liberty muffins." Trump can tell us how we fought no less than five wars against England and kicked their limey asses each time. No matter that it was actually only two wars, and we hardly "kicked their ass" the 2nd go around, if Trump says it, it must be true. He can make up names for them.

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I wear your scorn like a badge of honor. After all they killed Socrates as well.
But if you really want to get to know me I say Plato, Nietzsche, Keynes, Garry Wills, and Michael Lind.
Read those five gentlemen and you will get a major clue on how I view this thing called human society.
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